Double Standard? Obama '09 Cabinet picks slid through; Trump's face hold-up

Donald Trump’s team has a message for Senate Democrats threatening to slow-walk their nominees: Give the president-elect’s Cabinet picks the same treatment extended to President Obama’s.
Top transition officials, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are citing a potential double standard as some Democratic lawmakers seek a delay in advance of a packed schedule of confirmation hearings.
Eight years ago, the Senate confirmed seven Cabinet-level nominees the day of Obama’s inauguration, including top picks like Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security secretary. Hillary Clinton was confirmed as secretary of state the following day.
Trump allies are optimistic he will get a comparable number confirmed from the outset -- Trump himself predicted Monday, "I think they'll all pass" -- but are warning Democrats they’ll suffer politically if they throw the brakes on the process.
“I think the Democrats will overplay their hand here,” senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told “Fox & Friends” on Monday. If key Trump nominees are held up, she said, “[Democrats] will be blamed, we won’t be blamed.”
TRUMP CABINET NOMINEES GET THEIR DAY
Conway cited the brisk confirmation pace for Obama’s nominees back in 2009, echoing McConnell from a day earlier.
“We confirmed seven Cabinet appointments the day President Obama was sworn in. We didn't like most of them either. But he won the election,” McConnell told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “So all of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration in having not only lost the White House, but having lost the Senate.”
McConnell said, “We need to sort of grow up here and get past that. We need to have the president's national security team in place on Day One.”
Democrats indicate the reason they’re scrutinizing Trump’s nominees so closely is because they’re still awaiting important paperwork that could clarify any potential conflicts of interest the nominees -- in some cases millionaires and billionaires with complex personal finances -- might encounter on the job.
The director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, recently suggested Republicans were the ones breaking with precedent, noting the office had not even received initial draft disclosure reports for some nominees appearing before Congress this week -- when the Senate plans to hold at least nine confirmation hearings, beginning Tuesday.
"I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process," wrote Shaub.
But incoming Trump press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that every nominee with a hearing scheduled this week now “has their paperwork in” to the Office of Government Ethics‎.
Senate committee aides also said hearings were held for former Education Secretary Roderick Paige and former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao before they received the same forms in 2001, and that they received the documents days after each of those hearings. Both were confirmed to serve in President George W. Bush's Cabinet.
Conway said Trump’s nominees, further, have answered more than 2,600 questions and met with dozens of senators, including Democrats.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of trying to rush through Trump’s nominees. He said Monday they’re actually holding Trump’s picks to same standard McConnell set for Obama’s eight years ago.
Schumer has joined with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the Democratic National Committee and others in seeking a pause. Warren tweeted: “Cabinet officials must put our country's interests before their own. No conf hearings should be held until we’re certain that’s the case.”
In the end, Democrats can slow down the process but don’t have power to use the filibuster to block nominations, since they changed the threshold on such votes from 60 to 51 votes. If Republicans hold together, Trump’s nominees are virtually assured confirmation.
The hearings begin Tuesday with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination for attorney general before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same panel that in 1986 denied him a federal judgeship, following allegations he had made racist remarks and called the NAACP "un-American."
Civil rights groups are urging a thorough vetting of Sessions, but others are coming to his defense, with supporters going on air with pro-Sessions testimonials from those who have worked with him.
Another closely watched hearing will be ExxonMobil boss Rex Tillerson’s appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, for his nomination to be secretary of State. Democrats and even some Republicans could press Tillerson not only on his financial interests but his ties to Russia.
While Republicans hope past will be prologue and the Senate swiftly confirms many nominees, they also have to contend with Democrats seeking payback for their treatment of Obama’s Supreme Court pick. While the Senate quickly confirmed Obama’s Cabinet picks in 2009, the chamber under Republican control steadfastly refused to consider Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court vacancy last year.
Even if the Senate moves to confirm Trump’s Cabinet nominees, his Supreme Court pick is likely to face a contentious confirmation fight.
In anticipation, the Judicial Crisis Network – the same conservative group that has been lobbying for Sessions’ confirmation – announced Monday it will spend at least $10 million on a campaign to confirm Trump’s eventual Supreme Court nominee.
Carrie Severino, JCN chief counsel, called it “the most robust campaign for a Supreme Court nominee in history,” vowing to pressure vulnerable Democratic senators on the vote.

Kushner joins father-in-law's White House as senior adviser

Jared Kushner will serve as a senior adviser in father-in-law Donald Trump's White House, the Trump Presidential Transition Team said Monday.
The announcement ends speculation about Kushner’s post-campaign role but fuels questions about the future of his family’s Manhattan real estate business.
Kushner's lawyer has said his client would step down as chief executive of the family business if he takes a White House position and divest some of his assets to comply with federal ethics laws that apply to government employees.
The law requires Kushner, who was among Trump's most trusted and powerful campaign advisers, to take more significant steps than Trump to disentangle his business interests, given that conflict-of-interest laws largely do not apply to the president.
But attorney Caleb Burns, a partner in the Washington, D.C., firm Wiley Rein, hit back Monday at Democrats like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others who have suggested that Trump, Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson and now Kushner aren’t doing enough to separate themselves from business interests.
“Jared Kushner has done everything he’s required to do and more. He’s simply required to recuse himself from any decision that would have a ‘direct and predictable’ impact on his financial holdings,” Burns, who specializes in government ethics law, said Monday. “They're cloaking political issues in legal garb."
The transition team said Kushner will work closely with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon to execute President-elect Trump’s agenda.
“Jared has been a tremendous asset and trusted adviser throughout the campaign and transition, and I am proud to have him in a key leadership role in my administration” said Trump, in the announcement.
Kushner’s decision also ends speculation about whether he would join Trump’s administration or take an outside advisory role.
But it will likely further ignite the political squabble over whether the 35-year-old Kushner's post violates a no-nepotism law that bars officials from appointing relatives to government positions. (Some Trump aides have argued that the law does not apply to the White House.)
Kushner, married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was deeply involved in the campaign's digital efforts and was usually at Trump's side during the election's closing weeks.
He has since continued to play a central role in the transition, taking part in Cabinet interviews and often getting a last word alone with Trump after a meeting concludes.
Whether Kushner, a Harvard graduate, will be an adviser on domestic or foreign policy, or both, remains unclear.
Trump has suggested since winning the White House race in November that he would like Kushner involved in helping with Middle East peace.
Kushner has never publicly distanced himself from Trump's more provocative stances, including his campaign call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration.
The announcement follows Kushner being among the few advisers to join Trump in meeting President Obama at the White House and reports about him and his family already having decided on a home in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood.
Like his father-in-law, Kushner pushed a mid-sized real estate company into the high-stakes battlefield of Manhattan. Though he is often viewed as more moderate than Trump, people close to him say he fully bought in to the Trump campaign's fiery populist message that resonated with white working class voters.
Prior to the campaign, Kushner and Ivanka Trump were not overtly political. Kushner's father was a Democratic fundraiser while Ivanka, whose personal brand has a focus on young working mothers, counted Chelsea Clinton among her friends.
“It is an honor to serve our country,” Kushner said. “I am energized by the shared passion of the president-elect and the American people and I am humbled by the opportunity to join this very talented team.”

Trump picks for attorney general, DHS kick off week of confirmation hearings

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees to lead the departments of Justice and Homeland Security will appear before Senate commitees Tuesday to kick off what is likely to be a contentious confirmation process.
Late Monday, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., announced that he would testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee against the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. Booker will be joined by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La. — the head of the Congressional Black Caucus — as part of an effort by Democrats to portray Sessions as out of the mainstream on civil rights legislation.
Booker is believed to be the first sitting Senator to testify in a confirmation hearing against another sitting senator nominated for a Cabinet position.
"I do not take lightly the decision to testify against a Senate colleague," Booker said in a statement. "But the immense powers of the Attorney General combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience.
"The Attorney General is responsible for ensuring the fair administration of justice, and based on his record, I lack confidence that Senator Sessions can honor this duty," the senator added.
Democrats don't have the power to block the nomination of either Sessions or retired Marine Gen. John Kelly to head DHS, since Republicans control the Senate and only need a simple majority to confirm both men.
However, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are expected to try and paint Sessions as being out of the mainstream on issues critical to the party's core voters — Hispanics, African Americans and women — ahead of the 2018 election cycle.
Sessions has been a leading advocate not only for cracking down on illegal immigration, but also for slowing all legal immigration, increasing mass deportations and giving more scrutiny to those entering the United States. He vehemently opposed the bipartisan immigration bill that the Senate passed in 2013 that included a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who worked with Republicans to craft the immigration legislation, indicated last week that he would have a hard time supporting Sessions, saying "he has been more anti-immigration than just about any other single member of Congress."
In 1986, Sessions was nominated to the federal bench by then-President Ronald Reagan, but was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee over allegations that he had called a black attorney "boy" — which he denied — and described the NAACP and ACLU as "un-American."
Last week, the NAACP staged a sit-in at one of Sessions' Alabama offices, and its legal defense fund said it was "inconceivable that he should be entrusted with the oversight of our civil rights laws."
Hank Sanders, a Democratic state senator in Alabama, points to cases Sessions pursued as a prosecutor against civil rights activists in the 1980s. "They called them voter fraud cases," said Sanders, who won acquittals for the defendants. "I called them voter persecution cases."
However, Albert Turner Jr., the son of two of those defendants recently said he believed Sessions "is not a racist" and "was simply doing his job" when he prosecuted the cases.
Supporters describe Sessions as a man of integrity who fought for desegregation during his career as a local GOP leader, prosecutor and elected official.
As U.S. attorney, Sessions' office investigated and helped secure convictions in the 1981 Ku Klux Klan lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager found hanging from a tree.
Greg Griffin, a black Alabama judge who worked as a state attorney when Sessions was Alabama attorney general, told the Associated Press over the weekend that Sessions "always treated me with respect" and called him "one of the best bosses I ever had."
While in the Senate, Sessions voted to confirm Obama's first attorney general, Eric Holder, the first black man to lead the Justice Department. He also worked with Democratic colleagues on efforts to combat prison rape and to reduce federal sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses, saying the gap unfairly targeted the "African-American community simply because that is where crack is most often used."
Kelly, who is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the full Senate, would be the first non-civilian to head DHS since the department was created in 2002. He is expected to be questioned closely about his views on border security.
Trump famously vowed to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico when he announced his run for president, and stuck to that vow throughout the campaign.

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Navy, Trump planning biggest fleet expansion to deter Russian, Chinese threats

BATH, Maine –  With President-elect Donald Trump demanding more ships, the Navy is proposing the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War to meet threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China.
The Navy's 355-ship proposal released last month is even larger than what the Republican Trump had promoted on the campaign trail, providing a potential boost to shipyards that have struggled because budget caps that have limited money funding for ships.
At Maine's Bath Iron Works, workers worried about the future want to build more ships but wonder where the billions of dollars will come from.
"Whether Congress and the government can actually fund it, is a whole other ball game," said Rich Nolan, president of the shipyard's largest union.
Boosting shipbuilding to meet the Navy's 355-ship goal could require an additional $5 billion to $5.5 billion in annual spending in the Navy's 30-year projection, according to an estimate by naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke at the Congressional Research Service.
The Navy's revised Force Structure Assessment calls for adding another 47 ships including an aircraft carrier built in Virginia, 16 large surface warships built in Maine and Mississippi, and 18 attack submarines built in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia. It also calls for more amphibious assault ships, expeditionary transfer docks and support ships.
In addition to being good for national security, a larger fleet would be better for both the sailors, who'd enjoy shorter deployments, and for the ships, which would have more down time for maintenance, said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, which represents most of the major Navy shipbuilders.
"Russia and China are going to continue to build up their navies," he said. "The complexities aren't going to get any easier. The Navy, more than any of the services, is our forward presence. We're going to need this Navy."
Many defense analysts agree that military capabilities have been degraded in recent years, especially when it comes to warships, aircraft and tanks.

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The key is finding a way to increase Navy shipbuilding to achieve defense and economic gains "in a fiscally responsible way that does not pass the bill along to our children," said independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Even when Trump takes office, no one envisions a return to the heady days during the Cold War when workers were wiring, welding, grinding, pounding and plumbing ships at a furious pace to meet President Ronald Reagan's audacious goal of a 600ship Navy.
The Navy currently has 274 deployable battle force ships, far short of its old goal of 308 ships.
Lawrence J. Korb, a retired naval officer and former assistant defense secretary under Reagan, said the Navy's request isn't realistic unless the Trump administration is willing to take the budget "to levels we've never seen."
"You never have enough money to buy a perfect defense. You have to make trade-offs," said Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
But investors apparently are betting on more ships.
General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works, Connecticut-based Electric Boat and California-based NASSCO, and Huntington Ingalls, which owns major shipyards in Virginia and in Mississippi, have both seen stock prices creep upward since the election.
"To the generic military shipbuilder, it's a bull market right now," said Ronald Epstein, an analyst at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch division.
In Bath, the 6,000 shipbuilders aren't going to count their eggs before they hatch.
"A lot of people are hopeful that it'll happen," Nolan said. "But they're taking a wait-and-see approach. They've heard it before and then seen it not come to fruition."

Trump's Cabinet nominees get their day before Senate, as partisan wrangling intensifies

Confirmation hearings begin this week on Capitol Hill for Alabama Sen. Jeff Session as U.S. attorney general and other Cabinet picks from President-elect Donald Trump -- amid increasing partisan threats about derailing nominees and calls to keep politics out of the process.
The most recent exchange began Saturday when Democrats called for a delay in the hearings -- including at least seven this week -- because several of Trump’s nominees have purportedly failed to complete ethics reviews to avoid conflicts of interest.
Democrats called for the delay based on letter this weekend from the Office of Government Ethics to Senate leaders stating that some of the nominees scheduled for hearings have yet to complete their ethics review process.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the complaints are merely “procedural” and are being raised by Democrats frustrated about him and fellow Republicans now controlling the House, Senate and White House.
"I understand that. But we need to sort of grow up here and get past that,” the Kentucky senator told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We confirmed seven Cabinet appointments the day President Obama was sworn in. We didn't like most of them either. But he won the election.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the ethics review is to ensuring wealthy Cabinet members work for the American people instead of "their own bottom line and that they plan to fully comply with the law."
Republicans are intent on getting as many Trump nominees through the arduous confirmation process before the incoming Republican president takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Several of Trump’s picks are wealth Americans with far-reaching business connections -- Republican mega-donor Betsy DeVos, for education secretary; ExxonMobile CEO Rex Tillerson, for secretary of state; Billionaire private-equity investor Wilbur Ross, for commerce secretary and former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary.
Despite all of the wrangling ahead of the Senate confirmation hearings, Trump’s nominees will almost certainly get enough votes in the chamber's GOP-led committees. However, they could run into delays when both parties cast final votes on the Senate floor, despite needing only 51 “yeahs.”
Democrats could use procedural moves to extend the debate on each of the nominees. But they don’t have the power to use the filibuster to block the nominations, because in the last Congress they changed the threshold on such filibusters from 60 to 51 votes.
The hearings begin Tuesday with Sessions in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same panel that in 1986 denied him a federal judgeship, following allegations that he had made racist remarks and called the NAACP "un-American."
Still, Session, an immigration hawk and the first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump, a fellow Republican, is expected to be confirmed without much delay or fight.
Still, civil rights groups are urging a thorough vetting of Sessions. Last week, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and other group members were arrested after a sit-in protest in Sessions' Mobile, Alabama, office, and could do something similar on Capitol Hill.
The two-day hearing includes a day for Sessions to address the committee, and a day for rebuttal witnesses from those opposing his nomination.
Session will be followed Tuesday by retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, the nominee for the post of Homeland Security secretary.
Tillerson’s hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to run the State Department, arguable the most important and high-profile Cabinet post, could be the most contentious.
His job leading oil giant ExxonMobile, which included deals with Russia and connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is raising concerns, especially after a recent U.S. intelligence report stated both meddled in this year’s presidential election.
However, the expected showdown with Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain -- who last week suggested he’d vote for Tillerson when “pigs fly” -- appears less likely.
McCain said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that still has questions but that a meeting last week with Tillerson eased concerns.
“Every president should have the benefit of the doubt as to their nominees,” he said. “So there has to be a compelling reason not” to vote for him.
Democrats and others argue that Ross, who founded the private equity firm WL Ross & Co., is the type of Wall Street tycoon that Trump has vowed to keep out of Washington.
But Ross' record has so far shown no potentially damaging conflicts of interest.
Schumer and other Democrats have purportedly targeted DeVos, Sessions and Tillerson as well as Mnuchin and South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney, for the Office of Management -- whose hearings have yet to be scheduled.
“If Republicans think they can quickly jam through a whole slate of nominees without a fair hearing process, they’re sorely mistaken,” Schumer said last week.
One of the committees that hasn't yet received the ethics review forms is the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will hold the DeVos hearings.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said it had also not received the forms for Ross, though a spokeswoman said they expect them soon.
Committee aides said they have received ethics forms for Sessions, Tillerson, Treasury Secretary nominee and retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis and Elaine Chao, for transportation secretary.
The Government Ethics office did not list which of Trump's Cabinet choices hadn't turned in their disclosures.
Other confirmation hearings next week include Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Ben Carson for housing secretary.

Trump pick for secretary of state to face tough scrutiny over Russian ties

Tensions over President-elect Donald Trump’s favorable Russian views and the upcoming Senate confirmation hearing for prospective secretary of state Rex Tillerson is expected to boil over in the days ahead.
Top Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that they plan to continue with new sanctions on Russia despite the potential to possibly alienate Trump and his ideas for warming ties between the U.S. and Russia.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump and his top aides have planned to downplay Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election which was pointed out in a U.S. intelligence report released Friday. The Russian divide in Congress would certainly get Trump’s presidency off to a rocky start.
Concerns over Russia are expected to come into the light during Tillerson’s confirmation hearing. Graham and McCain both agreed that they still had questions about Tillerson even after so-called “positive meetings” with the Exxon-Mobil executive. Tillerson’s Russian ties are expected to be scrutinized heavily.
“Mr. Tillerson has got to convince me and I think other members of the body, that he sees Russia as a disruptive force, that he sees Putin as undermining democracy all over the world, not just in our backyard,” Graham added. “He has to realize that the Russians did it when it came to the hacking and that new sanctions are justified.”
Trump has yet to accept the intelligence briefing that pointed at Moscow for interfering with the presidential election. He said in a series of tweets Sunday that it wasn’t bad to have a relationship with Russia.
“Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We have enough problems around the world without yet another one,” he added. “When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!”
Should Tillerson’s confirmation be rejected, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. The Journal noted that only three potential cabinet picks have been rejected in the 20th century. The last rejection came in 1989 during George H.W. Bush’s presidency when his secretary of defense pick was rejected by a Democratic Senate.

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Tillerson has received some support outside Congress. He’s received the backing up former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and former Secretaries of State James Baker and Condoleezza Rice.
A Republican-held Senate would need three total dissenters to possibly vote down Tillerson as the pick, if Democrats hold united. Graham and McCain would have to lure another senator onto their side.
With a showdown looming in the Senate, a fight over Russian ties isn’t going away.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told “Meet the Press” that Russia didn’t help U.S.-allied forces in Syria one bit in the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Carter said that Russia had promised to help fight extremists and help end the Syrian civil war. Instead, he said, Russia “doubled down on the Syrian civil war.”

Meryl Streep, Jimmy Fallon and more use Golden Globes stage to slam Trump

Idiots

Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, some liberal stars were determined to use the 74th annual Golden Globes to have the last word 12 days before Trump is sworn into office.
During a night that saw "Moonlight," "La La Land," "The Crown" and "Atlanta" win big it was the next president of the United States that got the most attention.
Just minutes into the show, host Jimmy Fallon used his time on stage to take digs at Trump after he was forced to improvise for the first few minutes of the show due to a broken teleprompter.
Once his script was up and running, Fallon called the Golden Globes "one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote." That, though, isn't quite true. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of 85 members, has its own methods of selecting winners.
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Fallon often used the President-elect as a punchline, even comparing him to belligerent and cruel "Games of Thrones" King Joffrey, but Meryl Streep changed the tone of the evening when she launched into a somber speech about Trump.
Streep said Trump's behavior "sank its hooks in my heart" and she slammed what she called Trump's "instinct to humiliate." She asked for a "principled press to hold Trump [accountable]" and to call him out "for every outrage." Her comments were met with applause, tears and support by her fellow actors in the audience. Actor Chris Pine called her speech the "best message of tonight."
Hugh Laurie, accepting his award for best supporting actor in a limited series or TV film for "The Night Manager," speculated that this would perhaps be the last Golden Globes ceremony.

"I don't mean to be gloomy, but it has the words 'Hollywood,' 'foreign' and 'press' in the title," Laurie said, explaining his pessimism about the awards surviving the Trump era. He added that some Republicans don't even like the word "association."
He accepted his award "on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere."
The night's top winner was Damien Chazelle's lauded Los Angeles musical "La La Land," which took home seven awards. Ryan Gosling won for best actor in a musical or comedy, and "La La Land" composer Justin Hurwitz won best score and its lyricists, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, won for best original song, "City of Stars."
Meanwhile, "Moonlight" won the award for the best motion picture drama.
Casey Anthony won best actor in a motion picture drama for "Manchester by the Sea," and Isabelle Huppert won best actress in a motion picture drama for "Elle."
Viola Davis won best supporting actress for "Fences," and British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson took best supporting actor for his performance in Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals."
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On the TV side, "The People v. O.J. Simpson" took home the best miniseries award, as well as an award for Sarah Paulson.
Donald Glover looked visibly surprised when his FX series "Atlanta" won best comedy series over heavyweights like "Veep" and "Transparent."
Other winners were Tracee Ellis Ross ("Black-ish") and Billy Bob Thornton ("Goliath").